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Published: August 18th 2008
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Again, taken upon exiting.In addition to saving you a lot of money while on a trip of National Parks, the National Parks pass also allows you visit lesser known sights (and not feel bad if they turn out to be duds). However, our stop at Pipe Spring National Monument, just over the Arizona border on Highway 389 (just beyond Colorado City), was an interesting side trip (not duddy at all). As the name implies, Pipe Spring is an actual artesian spring in the middle of the arid Arizona plains. Like we all know by now, water plays an important role in this area of the US (usually carving cliffs, canyons, etc.) In this particular case, it is the spring water that attracted humans to this area for 12,000 years. Originally, nomadic people gathered here in order to gain sustenance by the spring. Many years later, the Kaibab Paiutes lived around the spring, using the water to grow maize and beans. It wasn't until the late 1700s that it begins to get interesting. Keep in mind that this is 1 little spring! At this point, two Catholic missionaries from Santa Fe were exploring the region, trying to find California, for gold or something. Their unsuccessful
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Paiute kahns, home sweet home. Our tent is bigger. expedition led them to encounter the Paiutes, who saved their lives and gave them food, as well as telling them a route back to Santa Fe that went around the Grand Canyon. In turn, the missionaries nearly wiped the Paiutes out from diseases. Those that did survive, remained to meet the first of Mormon missionaries and Major John Wesley Powell, who was the first man to explore the entire region of central Utah on south. This should interest you Grandpa, he lost one arm below the elbow in the Civil War, so not only was he the first man, he was the first one-armed man to explore the region.
In the 1850s, the Mormon Church told its members to spread beyond Salt Lake City towards southern Utah and found settlements. Some went beyond the Utah border, which wasn't actually there until 1896, into northern Arizona, swooping in on all available water sources. They soon controlled most of the area's water sources, further distressing the declining Paiute population. The Mormons then moved cattle and sheep into the area in the 1860s, which ate all of the available grasses, which the Paiutes depended heavily upon for food. Bordering Navajo tribes soon
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The Pipe Spring Garden. Full of delicious squash, beans, cucumbers, and even some native plants, like the sunflowers! began raiding the Mormons' livestock. In one attempt to get them back, a prominent rancher and his herdsman were killed. It was not long before the conflict between Mormons and Indians escalated, and the Mormons built a fort, Winsor Castle, around and on top of Pipe Spring to safeguard it from the Indians. Today at Pipe Spring, you can tour Winsor Castle in addition to seeing replicas of structures the Paiutes would have lived in, pet cattle, and walk around their garden. And you can touch the spring!
After getting our stamp in our passport (and Cody's cucumber from the garden), we continued on to our first shower in a week at Cameron Trading Post (and hotel, thank you Mama and Papa) in Cameron, AZ. The trading post has a variety of Native American goods, including handwoven Navajo rugs, actually made on-site so you can watch. More important than all of these, however, are the NAVAJO TACOS!! We went to dinner and made the mistake of underestimating the menu, so instead of getting something we could actually eat, what came was enough to feed a whole family. So after making pigs of ourselves (Cody ate the whole thing AND
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Horse and cattle corrals, includes housing for ranch hands. a sopapilla) we returned to our room to recuperate. The next morning we enjoyed the gardens outside, perused the Native American wares, and prepared for the Grand Canyon, 70 miles to the west.
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